Category: Video

I’ve been lucky enough to be included in a cool little crew of people who get together weekly to work on creative arty things in a shared space. It’s really chill, no pressure to turn up, but when you do, you know you can work on your projects in an environment with like-minded folks. I admit, I haven’t been to many of the meet-ups yet, but I already have a strong appreciation for the group. The night that Rachel hosted had a lot of people filter through, working on sketches, laptops, water colours – even woodburning/engraving!

I set up my camera to try out my recently acquired remote. It allows you to choose how often you want the camera to take a photo, in order to make a timelapse. I’m pretty sure I set it to every 15 seconds or so over 2 – 3 hours. (Actually I just left it going until the camera battery ran out.) I’m pretty happy with the results of my first timelapse. It was pure luck that people were situated in such a way that we can see their sketches evolve. It’s fun to re-watch it, focusing on just one person to see their movements throughout the night. I notice something new each time!

I’ve been volunteering as part of the media team for the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire. If you are not familiar with the ‘Maker movement‘ it basically encompasses anyone who is engaged in the act of making. The Maker Faire is a yearly event that began in California. The Vancouver event, which happened this past weekend, is one of the satellite events that has sprung up in Maker Faire’s wake – hence the ‘Mini’. So a Maker can be anyone with a DIY mindset, whether they come from a background of arts, craft, engineering or science. The event featured an abundance of robots, 3D printers, interactive projections, circuit making and bending, quilting, embroidery, paper craft, vehicles, surfboards… and the list goes on. It’s basically like a science fair for adults. I helped out by interviewing makers for ‘Meet Your Makers’ blog posts. As you can imagine, it’s given me access to some truly fascinating interview subjects.

I’ve given myself a little undertaking to do an interview series before I leave Australia. My first subject was Mhairi, a former pelvic examination model and demonstrator. Here is an excerpt, with the extended interview to come. In this portion, Mhairi speaks about some of the incorrect behaviour that she was teaching OB/GYN medical students to avoid by allowing them to practise on a real person rather than a mannequin.

When Salford Zine Library put a call out for zine makers to participate in a documentary project last year, I recorded myself answering some of their questions. Being used to being the interviewer rather than the interviewee, it was quite difficult being in front of the camera. Especially since it was just me and the camera, with no one to prompt me. I ended up being a bit of a perfectionist with my answers since I wanted to be sure to give a useable sound bite. I still didn’t know if they would use it at all, but it turns out I might make an appearance or two if the final film. I’ve popped up in a couple of preview chapters that the filmmakers have put online.

Craig Barr interviewed self-publishers across Manchester, including OWT Creative, Vapid Kitten and Manchester Municipal Design Corporation, as well as inviting international film submissions. The film is showing during an exhibition from October 15 to January 29 at Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Peel Park Crescent, Salford M5 4WU.

Café Lua is running an art competition inviting submissions on the theme “The First Time.” I got together with competition organiser Eff Pan to make this promotional film. I helped out with interviewing and cinematography and my favourite thing (not): approaching strangers to ask them to be on camera. But I mostly left that to Eff. Takes me back to my radio vox pop days – oh the pain of rejection! The photo above is of a tiny coffee the baristas made while we were there. That cup was about the size of a 10c coin!

Now I just have to get started on my entry! I’m pretty excited about reenacting the first time I have in mind. (Stop it – it’s totally innocent.)

Competition details:
Entry is free and you can win up to $375 worth of art supplies vouchers and the top six artists will have their work exhibited in Café Lua for four weeks. Highly commended submissions will get to have their work featured exclusively in a slide show that will be playing on the Café Lua flat screen tv.

Entries must be A4 or smaller (including framing) and can be in the form of illustration, photography, typography… or pretty much any medium which can be hung onto the Café Lua art wall.

Send your visual response to art@cafelua.com by Tuesday November 15th and come along to the launch party at Café Lua on Friday December 2nd.

Last night I had a video in the “Dumb Arts” exhibition put on by the folk at Saint One 20. I really enjoyed the way they pitched the premise:

“So here’s my idea; we make art where we deliberately set out to embarrass ourselves. Maybe it won’t even be funny, maybe it will be so damn stupid, so ridiculously dumb that we create awkward silences and people look away uncomfortably. Maybe this art is in the form of stupid drawings of your dog’s butt, maybe it’s Polaroid photos of yourself rolling around covered in scrambled eggs, maybe it’s a performance piece where you just stand in the middle of the room and make fart noises – I don’t know. That’s up to you.”

Oh and I like this part that drives the point home minus the butts, eggs and farts:

“Thing is, though, I believe that to be truly funny you can’t take yourself too seriously and you can’t be afraid of looking like a fool. I think us artists are really bloody scared of looking like idiots but I think that if we’re ever going to be any good, we have to overcome that fear.”

Here’s the video I contributed (best viewed full screen and in a continuous loop):

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/25924968 w=500&h=280]

This is one particularly eccentric gent I met during a recent trip to Spain where I did El Camino de Santiago. Turning to me at a communal dinner, Gustavo introduced himself to me with a ‘tache wiggle that made me jump out of my seat (to grab the camera!). I like the way that without the sound of laughter, he just looks kind of weathered, miserable and potentially deranged – yet he’s doing something damn silly.